Actually the demo would be free but the later story arcs could be paid content. Thats up to Muse tho.
Back on topic, just looked back and it is listing this ship as part of the Nalm/Sylka war on Scrap. Designed to put an end to it. So I assume that dates it as post old world. I don't think it would have been a local city project but likely at one time Nalm and Sylka had much larger territories or at least alliances. The major mining is over in Yesha so perhaps at the time, Nalm or Slyka were apart of that territory.
Now the wreckage is within the Dunes so we can safely assume that the Levi was intercepted before it reached either town. If we look at location of Nalm, it is closer to Yesha territory. So here is a situation.
We know Nalm has an upper and a lower city. It has a lot of wealth but is centered around a fresh water source. The Nalmese have strong ties to local warlords who defend it when enemies attempt to attack it. They are fearsome enough to keep marauders in line. Likely the Nalmese use the water as a bargaining chip. So lets assume there was a golden age in Nalm where they had a lot more power and were flexing it at Sylka. If Nalm had trade relations with the Yesha territories, they could have easily financed the Levi's construction. It would have been a vessel meant to break Sylka's lines and level the city, but something went wrong and probably a weak spot was found. Sylka exploited it. However, we don't know how much of their force was decimated before it was brought down. Lets assume enough where both sides would be forced to the peace table. Nalm could have lost a lot too if the Levi was a hydrogen filled death trap and their forces ran escort close to it.
Even if it didn't bring down a part of Nalm's fleet with it, the financial burden which was now burning up in the desert could have led to a change of leadership and brought in leaders more interested in peace than war.
Now had the Levi succeeded and flattened Sylka, Nalm would have easily expanded and likely eventually gone on to conquer large amounts of territory. Their leaders would have been celebrated.